I was born on a Monday, so I should have been set for some new music the next day. Unfortunately, the music industry back then was very different from today. Without the magic of the internet, a very small number of bands made most of the music and earned crazy money, so much that the popular genre of the time became known as "glam rock." The bottom line is that even though your typical successful band would put out more albums than today, fewer albums came out.
What happened on the second day of my life would be unimaginable today: no new albums came out. In fact, no new albums would come out until after the New Year, and they are mostly forgotten today. While I quietly shat myself, America tuned in to the likes of MC Hammer, and that was before "U Can't Touch This." Behind the scenes, Hair Metal died, Grunge was born, Rap got angry, and John Tesh refused to go away.
I remember very clearly my first experience with grownup music, I was in the car with my mom and Rumours was in the cassette player. I'm told I enjoyed Revolver as an infant, and that sounds like me, but as far as I can remember and as far as it matters, my exposure to rock music began with Fleetwood Mac's angry album. While my Mom listened to Nirvana and Pearl Jam, my Dad and I still listened to the classics. He and I still prefer happier music than Mom; I have accused her in the past of being Emo.
Unfortunately, my dad now assumes that everything I listen to is by Smash Mouth, the most popular band among white nine-year-olds and Gatorade executives. For him it is forever 1977.
When I was first introduced to to popular music, it couldn't have come at a worse time. It was 2000, rock was dying yet again, and the music industry was buying time with boy bands and lip-synchers. And I reveled in them. I would like to apologize. Neither Jenna nor I had a good grounding in the music of the 90's and could only wait.
Less than a year later, the Strokes released their first album. Along with The Hives, The White Stripes, and The Vines, they were heralded as the saviors of rock. Many will say this was just an invention of the biz, but in 2001, there was a definite feeling that the national nightmare was over.
29 September 2008
20 September 2008
The rest of the world is safe again
1. McCain is down in the polls again.
2. I have a weird zigzag stain on my jeans that keeps getting bigger every time I wash it.
3. Dance has evolved:
4. I'm in the zone again, broke as fuck-all, in the City of [free] Love.
5. Remember Punky Brewster?
Mother. Fucker. Yeah.
SGV Represent'n
SEASON THREE BEGINS THIS TUESDAY!
~MP~
2. I have a weird zigzag stain on my jeans that keeps getting bigger every time I wash it.
3. Dance has evolved:
4. I'm in the zone again, broke as fuck-all, in the City of [free] Love.
5. Remember Punky Brewster?
Mother. Fucker. Yeah.SGV Represent'n
SEASON THREE BEGINS THIS TUESDAY!
~MP~
19 September 2008
A long, strange, erotic, yet weirdly satisfying night in
Thursday and most of today were bright and sunny, but as I took my Statistics exam, clouds enshrouded us. I was going to be busy Saturday and needed to do some serious meditating (makes cranking motion).
8:00 PM. I see my neighbor Carly in a towel, and kind of silently freak out. Of course I wear a towel whenever I go to take a shower (which is awkward because it's at the other end of the building). Then again, I'm a skinny white boy and she's a big-timer Colorado blonde basketball player.
8:30 PM. I see Carly in a towel again, and make a fool of myself. My roommate had left his skateboard in the room and I decide that now is a good time to learn to ride one, which is difficult on shag carpeting. Then I slip and the board flings across the hall as Carly comes up to me. May my roommate never read this.
Anyway, I ask her what she is up to tonight, and she says she doesn't know. She is clearly going to do something, but she doesn't know? Who the fuck is that spontaneous and how to I get in on that shit?
9:00 PM. I discover the comedy stylings of Ben Bailey, who unfortunately does not have anything on iTunes. His humor is all observational and not that unusual, but he presents everything like it's one big story, which somehow makes it all funnier.
The moral of the story: people need to walk faster out of subway stations.
9:30 PM. I discover the musical stylings of the Dandy Warhols waaaay after it's cool to like them.
10:00 PM. Admittedly I've been in kind of a rut, so I email Caitlin to ask her what we are going to do tomorrow (we had earlier stipulated going to North Beach, she's really into books and history). As of yet, I have not gotten a reply. Well, yeah, it's Ten O'Clock. Which brings up the interesting question of what people do for fun in Brisbane.
10:30 PM. I walk to the shower. As always, it is awkward.
11:00 PM. There is a sudden knock on my door. As most people knocking on my door are looking for my roommate (who I've explained countless times is never here), I simply shout out "he's not here!"
This does not work, as they seem to be looking for me. Much to my chagrin, I have just showered and am consequently naked. I quickly throw on jeans and a t-shirt, then open the door to discover a guy I have never seen in my life, here with his girlfriend. Apparently this was his room last year, and he's revisiting all those fond memories. Unfortunately, I am forced to relive them as well, and later return to my bed, which I now know to have a years' worth of prolific fucking ground into it. This is strangely comforting.
But from this point forward, I will be sleeping while hanging from the ceiling.
1:00 AM. Some douchebag pulls the fire alarm and we have to evacuate. As it's Friday night, there are significantly less people here, which makes the sad PDAs all the more uncomfortable. Those that are here are so sleep deprived that they laugh at my pithy commentary. We are soon allowed back in, and I return to the humongous, steaming bowl of elephant piss that is currently my comedy set.
~MP~
8:00 PM. I see my neighbor Carly in a towel, and kind of silently freak out. Of course I wear a towel whenever I go to take a shower (which is awkward because it's at the other end of the building). Then again, I'm a skinny white boy and she's a big-timer Colorado blonde basketball player.
8:30 PM. I see Carly in a towel again, and make a fool of myself. My roommate had left his skateboard in the room and I decide that now is a good time to learn to ride one, which is difficult on shag carpeting. Then I slip and the board flings across the hall as Carly comes up to me. May my roommate never read this.
Anyway, I ask her what she is up to tonight, and she says she doesn't know. She is clearly going to do something, but she doesn't know? Who the fuck is that spontaneous and how to I get in on that shit?
9:00 PM. I discover the comedy stylings of Ben Bailey, who unfortunately does not have anything on iTunes. His humor is all observational and not that unusual, but he presents everything like it's one big story, which somehow makes it all funnier.
The moral of the story: people need to walk faster out of subway stations.
9:30 PM. I discover the musical stylings of the Dandy Warhols waaaay after it's cool to like them.
10:00 PM. Admittedly I've been in kind of a rut, so I email Caitlin to ask her what we are going to do tomorrow (we had earlier stipulated going to North Beach, she's really into books and history). As of yet, I have not gotten a reply. Well, yeah, it's Ten O'Clock. Which brings up the interesting question of what people do for fun in Brisbane.
10:30 PM. I walk to the shower. As always, it is awkward.
11:00 PM. There is a sudden knock on my door. As most people knocking on my door are looking for my roommate (who I've explained countless times is never here), I simply shout out "he's not here!"
This does not work, as they seem to be looking for me. Much to my chagrin, I have just showered and am consequently naked. I quickly throw on jeans and a t-shirt, then open the door to discover a guy I have never seen in my life, here with his girlfriend. Apparently this was his room last year, and he's revisiting all those fond memories. Unfortunately, I am forced to relive them as well, and later return to my bed, which I now know to have a years' worth of prolific fucking ground into it. This is strangely comforting.
But from this point forward, I will be sleeping while hanging from the ceiling.
1:00 AM. Some douchebag pulls the fire alarm and we have to evacuate. As it's Friday night, there are significantly less people here, which makes the sad PDAs all the more uncomfortable. Those that are here are so sleep deprived that they laugh at my pithy commentary. We are soon allowed back in, and I return to the humongous, steaming bowl of elephant piss that is currently my comedy set.
~MP~
17 September 2008
The Third Album - or, what bands can learn from Stone Temple Pilots
Last post, I talked about the Second Album and how to screw it up. Now, I'm going to talk about the Third Album and how to make the most of it, and in doing so defend one of the most important and underrated bands in the history of rock.
With Arctic Monkeys, Franz Ferdinand, and even possibly the Kooks releasing their third albums within a year of now, I think it's best to explain what a third album is supposed to be. And perhaps there is no better example of that than Tiny Music...Songs From the Vatican Gift Shop by Stone Temple Pilots.
In the canon of 90's rock, STP is often looked over as an overambitious cock-rock or fake-grunge outfit. Part of this is because of all of their songs, the ones that get the most play now are from their shaky first album, Core. Part of this is because Scott Weiland is a train wreck.
But in just two short years, the band had progressed by leaps and bounds, as evidenced by the soaring melodies of their defining album, Purple.
Riding on a wave of success, front man Scott Weiland got caught buying crack. It was probably the best career decision he ever made, because that's when Tiny Music happened, and its one of the reasons why:
The third album is a showcase for non-leading band members.
With the obvious exception of providing the vocals, Tiny Music was the most Weiland-lite album. The only song written solely by Scott Weiland is the decidedly weak-sauce "Tumble in the Rough." This album was bassist Robert DeLeo's time to shine, and that made the album all the better.
The third album should be an inspiration
Obviously, the Tiny Music was a great departure, but here they went beyond the call: That album was released in March of 1996. That October, a few songs were recorded in a garage in suburban Sydney. The songs on the resulting cassette sounded eerily like they were left off STP's album. But they weren't. They were by a local band of teenagers called THE VINES. Even now, Tiny Music sounds eerily like a Vines album. Craig Nicholls has never acknowledged Stone Temple Pilots as an influence, but we all know the truth...
Just by being successful enough to make it to your third album, you have full license to do something pretentious and kitschy with it.
Franz Ferdinand has already won a point just for titling their forthcoming album Ulysses. To me, that implies some kind of theme. And everything we know about Arctic Monkey's third album leads us to believe that it's composed entirely of psychedelic breakup songs.* The Pilots nailed this one on the head with the whole "hold me closer, let me go" thing that popped up all over the place (variants of that lyric appeared in four songs). That's borderline rock opera!
Other kitschy, pretentious things you can do include multiple instrumental tracks, the occasional use of bongos, and blues riff tangents (hear that, Luke Pritchard? I know that's what you've been wanting to do!)
Ultimately, the third album is a chance for rock bands to have fun. A third album that's not fun to record isn't fun to listen to, and a third album that's not fun to listen to is First Impressions of Earth.
But that's why we have the comeback album!
~s~
With Arctic Monkeys, Franz Ferdinand, and even possibly the Kooks releasing their third albums within a year of now, I think it's best to explain what a third album is supposed to be. And perhaps there is no better example of that than Tiny Music...Songs From the Vatican Gift Shop by Stone Temple Pilots.
In the canon of 90's rock, STP is often looked over as an overambitious cock-rock or fake-grunge outfit. Part of this is because of all of their songs, the ones that get the most play now are from their shaky first album, Core. Part of this is because Scott Weiland is a train wreck.
But in just two short years, the band had progressed by leaps and bounds, as evidenced by the soaring melodies of their defining album, Purple.
Riding on a wave of success, front man Scott Weiland got caught buying crack. It was probably the best career decision he ever made, because that's when Tiny Music happened, and its one of the reasons why:
The third album is a showcase for non-leading band members.
With the obvious exception of providing the vocals, Tiny Music was the most Weiland-lite album. The only song written solely by Scott Weiland is the decidedly weak-sauce "Tumble in the Rough." This album was bassist Robert DeLeo's time to shine, and that made the album all the better.
The third album should be an inspiration
Obviously, the Tiny Music was a great departure, but here they went beyond the call: That album was released in March of 1996. That October, a few songs were recorded in a garage in suburban Sydney. The songs on the resulting cassette sounded eerily like they were left off STP's album. But they weren't. They were by a local band of teenagers called THE VINES. Even now, Tiny Music sounds eerily like a Vines album. Craig Nicholls has never acknowledged Stone Temple Pilots as an influence, but we all know the truth...
Just by being successful enough to make it to your third album, you have full license to do something pretentious and kitschy with it.
Franz Ferdinand has already won a point just for titling their forthcoming album Ulysses. To me, that implies some kind of theme. And everything we know about Arctic Monkey's third album leads us to believe that it's composed entirely of psychedelic breakup songs.* The Pilots nailed this one on the head with the whole "hold me closer, let me go" thing that popped up all over the place (variants of that lyric appeared in four songs). That's borderline rock opera!
Other kitschy, pretentious things you can do include multiple instrumental tracks, the occasional use of bongos, and blues riff tangents (hear that, Luke Pritchard? I know that's what you've been wanting to do!)
Ultimately, the third album is a chance for rock bands to have fun. A third album that's not fun to record isn't fun to listen to, and a third album that's not fun to listen to is First Impressions of Earth.
But that's why we have the comeback album!
~s~
10 September 2008
The Second Album - a case study in musical criticism
First of all, I would like to announce that Season 3 - at least the plot-driven episodes - will be scaled back again, but small minisodes will be released in anticipation.
And now the main thingy:
THE SECOND ALBUM - and how to ruin it.
At the end of the 1990s, rock music was dying again, as the musical scene increasingly comprised boy bands, disney excrement, and aging stars squandering their legacies. Something had to give, and in 2002 the saviors of rock and roll were crowned: The Strokes, The White Stripes, and The Vines. It's the first and last of these that we want to pay attention to. Both of them came out with incredibly strong debut albums, and work immediately started on their second ones.
At the time of their recording, Room on Fire and Winning Days were strong, triumphant albums, but somewhere along the line, The Vines made a terrible miscalculation. Winning Days was originally meant to be a sprawling, 16-track manifesto. Like most albums, it was cut back, but something had gone horribly wrong.
1. The "Landslide" problem. Most of the best songs from Winning Days weren't on the album at all, but were included in supplemental EPs that weren't available in the U.S. Listening to these with the album makes it that much better, but there's still more to be done.
2. The "Evil Town" problem. Conversely, the worst, most unlistenable songs were kept on the album.
3. Out of Order. some reviewers would say that Winning Days was an inevitable failiure. These people are Communists. Much of the problem lay with the fact that the album starts with the chart-topper, "Ride," and then constantly alternates between loud, fast songs and quiet, slow songs, which is jarring and disorienting. A good second album should have the hit around track 3 or 4, and lead up to it with some songs that sound good, but which are unsatisfying on their own (Scott Weiland is an expert at this). Those should be followed with some quiet songs, before going to the second half of the album.
4. The Cliffhanger. The original, uncut version of Winning Days was going to end with the soft, quiet tune "Watch the World," but it was later relegated to the supplemental EPs. Instead, we ended up with the mocking screamo anthem "Fuck the World." Think they meant for those to go together? Well, ending the second album with a loud song is never a good idea (loud songs should be second-to-last, followed by a quiet, relaxing song). You leave the listener anxious for more, which is hard to live up to when your third album is total filler. More importantly, the third album is usually a departure from an artists earlier work (again, Scott Weiland is an expert at this) and it would be wrong to expect more of the same.
Conclusion:
Through the magic of iTunes, I have fixed these problems, gotten rid of two bad songs, put four good ones in, and got everything in order. Here's what came out.
1. Landslide (EP)
2. Hot Leather (EP)
3. Ride (1)
4. TV Pro (3)
5. Give Up, Give Out, Give In (EP)
6. Autumn Shade 2 (4)
7. Winning Days (6)
8. She's Got Something to Say (7)
9. Rainfall (8)
10. Amnesia (9)
11. Sun Child (10)
12. Fuck the World (11)
13. Watch the World (EP)
If this were the final product, it would be the Vines' longest album ---and their best. I plan to write Craig Nicholls to see if he could endorse a songwriter's cut or something.
~s~
And now the main thingy:
THE SECOND ALBUM - and how to ruin it.
At the end of the 1990s, rock music was dying again, as the musical scene increasingly comprised boy bands, disney excrement, and aging stars squandering their legacies. Something had to give, and in 2002 the saviors of rock and roll were crowned: The Strokes, The White Stripes, and The Vines. It's the first and last of these that we want to pay attention to. Both of them came out with incredibly strong debut albums, and work immediately started on their second ones.
At the time of their recording, Room on Fire and Winning Days were strong, triumphant albums, but somewhere along the line, The Vines made a terrible miscalculation. Winning Days was originally meant to be a sprawling, 16-track manifesto. Like most albums, it was cut back, but something had gone horribly wrong.
1. The "Landslide" problem. Most of the best songs from Winning Days weren't on the album at all, but were included in supplemental EPs that weren't available in the U.S. Listening to these with the album makes it that much better, but there's still more to be done.
2. The "Evil Town" problem. Conversely, the worst, most unlistenable songs were kept on the album.
3. Out of Order. some reviewers would say that Winning Days was an inevitable failiure. These people are Communists. Much of the problem lay with the fact that the album starts with the chart-topper, "Ride," and then constantly alternates between loud, fast songs and quiet, slow songs, which is jarring and disorienting. A good second album should have the hit around track 3 or 4, and lead up to it with some songs that sound good, but which are unsatisfying on their own (Scott Weiland is an expert at this). Those should be followed with some quiet songs, before going to the second half of the album.
4. The Cliffhanger. The original, uncut version of Winning Days was going to end with the soft, quiet tune "Watch the World," but it was later relegated to the supplemental EPs. Instead, we ended up with the mocking screamo anthem "Fuck the World." Think they meant for those to go together? Well, ending the second album with a loud song is never a good idea (loud songs should be second-to-last, followed by a quiet, relaxing song). You leave the listener anxious for more, which is hard to live up to when your third album is total filler. More importantly, the third album is usually a departure from an artists earlier work (again, Scott Weiland is an expert at this) and it would be wrong to expect more of the same.
Conclusion:
Through the magic of iTunes, I have fixed these problems, gotten rid of two bad songs, put four good ones in, and got everything in order. Here's what came out.
1. Landslide (EP)
2. Hot Leather (EP)
3. Ride (1)
4. TV Pro (3)
5. Give Up, Give Out, Give In (EP)
6. Autumn Shade 2 (4)
7. Winning Days (6)
8. She's Got Something to Say (7)
9. Rainfall (8)
10. Amnesia (9)
11. Sun Child (10)
12. Fuck the World (11)
13. Watch the World (EP)
If this were the final product, it would be the Vines' longest album ---and their best. I plan to write Craig Nicholls to see if he could endorse a songwriter's cut or something.
~s~
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